Improvements to Race and the Criminal Justice Statistics – Statistical Notice

10th June 2010 Improvements to Race and the Criminal Justice System publication

On 17th June 2010, the Ministry of Justice are publishing Race and the Criminal justice system – an annual publication that brings together statistics on ethnicity from across the Criminal Justice System.

Following feedback from users and methodological advice from the Office for national Statistics I have decided as Chief Statistician that the following improvements should be made to the publication.

1. A much simpler publication for users to understand the key messages with a simplification of the structure of the report into five key areas:

   - Victims
   - Suspects: Police Stops and Arrests
   - Offenders: Cautions, Prosecutions and Sentencing
   - Offenders: Under Supervision or in Custody
   - Practitioners in the Criminal Justice System

2. A clear summary highlighting the key trends and providing much more detail on changes over time than in previous years.

3. Provision of the same range of detailed information as previous years, but with much of the detail, particularly on all 42 Local Criminal Justice Boards provided as supplementary tables in Excel to allow easy re-use of data

4. Replacing the previously used 2001 Census-based mid year-estimates of ethnicity by police force areas with the Office for National Statistics’ 2007 experimental population estimates by ethnic group (PEEG) for local areas. Due to population changes affecting the composition of ethnic groups in England and Wales, the Ministry of Justice sought advice on which population estimates should be employed in the 2008/9 publication of Statistics on Race and the Criminal Justice System from the Office for National Statistics. The Office for National Statistics advised that the Ministry of Justice used the experimental Population Estimates by Ethnic Group (PEEGs,) which provide the best currently available estimates of the resident population by age, sex and ethnic group for mid-2001 to mid-2007 for local authorities in England and Wales. To ensure consistency, revised rates per thousand for previous years are also included in the analysis to allow accurate comparisons over time.

5. Improvements have been made in ethnic monitoring, especially through the roll-out of the police’s standard IT interface with the magistrates’ courts and the courts own roll-out of its single Libra IT system. The main roll-out of these systems took place in 2008 and has led to improvements that start to be seen for the 2008 period of this report and are expected to continue in future years. To consolidate progress, analysts have worked with Her Majesty’s Courts Service (HMCS), representatives from National Police Improvement Agency (NPIA), Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO), and the Equalities and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) to improve the level of recording in the magistrates’ courts.

6. A new appendix containing a glossary to aid understanding of the terms used in the definition and delivery of criminal justice

Iain Bell Chief Statistician Ministry of Justice Contact details and further information

For queries, comments or further information on the issues set out in this note, please contact:

Justice Statistics Analytical Services Ministry of Justice 7th floor 102 Petty France London SW1H 9AJ Email: statistics.enquiries@justice.gsi.gov.uk